Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) complaint figures released today show that NBN complaints remain a noticeable feature of consumer experiences with Malcolm Turnbull’s second-rate copper NBN.
Labor has said all along that Malcolm Turnbull’s NBN rollout would leave Australian consumers worse off. These complaint figures prove that to be true.
We are hearing more stories of consumers, both residential customers and small businesses, experiencing slow data speeds, drop-outs and connection issues under Malcolm Turnbull’s botched NBN rollout.
On 24 March, in response to questioning by the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on the NBN, the Ombudsman stated that:
“The number of consumers contacting us to complain about the service delivered over the NBN is likely to double on current projections.” (Judi Jones, Ombudsman, 24 March 2017)
In response to today’s figures, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), the peak body representing consumer telecommunications interests, has expressed concerns, stating:
“We often hear from consumers who are disconnected or have unusable services for long periods of time due to buck passing between NBN and the telecommunications providers.”
Only weeks ago, Minister Fifield declared 2017 as “the year of the customer.” Despite all the spin, the Government has done nothing to address the blame shifting occurring between NBN Co and Retail Service Providers. It’s no wonder that the TIO mid-year report reveals customer service is the largest category of complaints, comprising 47.9% of all complaints.
Furthermore, Labor is concerned that the current TIO reports are not fully capturing the scope and scale of the consumer complaints being made. Labor believes complaints should be broken down by technology type and the number of interactions associated with different complaint categories should be made transparent in the reports.
Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum have been inundated with complaints to the extent where the Government has been forced to initiate an ACCC broadband monitoring scheme. Despite their attempts to patch over these issues, nothing can change the systemic shortcomings of Malcolm Turnbull’s inferior NBN.
Malcolm Turnbull was willing to do anything to become Prime Minister. That included selling Australians a lie with his second-rate copper to the home NBN.
This is yet another stuff-up by Malcolm Turnbull, who has shown time and time again that he has comprehensively failed to deliver on his NBN promise. Australian consumers and small businesses deserve world-class broadband, not Malcolm Turnbull’s failed NBN.
